Welcome to the Neighbourhood
by Blackie Frogz
Summary: AU After Syd's family went bankrupt, she shifts to a new neighbourhood, and meets her new neighbours. They're aren't really on good terms with her and neither is she. However they have to work together to save their lives, and probably the Earth.
1. The beginning

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

Disclaimer: Don't own Power Rangers. Or anything familiar.

A.N.: Kinda inspired by a Chinese drama children-ish show I watched the other day. The story is totally AU and some characters might be a little OOC...

xxx

"Papa, why do we have to come _here?_" asked 18 year old Sydney Drew. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. Here? For the holidays? Oh you got to be kidding me. It was a block of flats. A small neighbourhood comprised of houses that weren't one storey or two stories, but flats. Level stacked on level. Living with other people! Well not really living with other people, but if you think about it, it seemed as if you were sharing a huge home with a few dozen families. "Papa... Why here? Why couldn't we go the Paris or Australia?" Syd whined. Her father and her mother didn't reply, and simply continued to walk on. They were staying with their Aunt for the holidays. "Why couldn't we stay at home then?"

Her father sighed, giving the inclination that he had explained many times already. "It's under renovation, Syd. Stop being so bratty. When the renovations are done, we can move back home." He had been saying that for more than a dozen times, but Syd sensed that it wasn't the truth. There was something in his eyes. Something sad. Something... Something that told her that he was lying. Or that's what she thought.

"Couldn't we just room in a hotel or something? Or we could just go to another country and live there until the renovations are done... Instead of living with Aunt! The houses are so small... How do you expect me to live there?" snorted Syd. There were only so few rooms in her Aunt's house. Would that mean she wouldn't have her own room? Or even her own closet? The horror. She trailed behind her parents. Dreading the upcoming days, weeks or even months...

"Sydney Drew, just do as you're told!" replied her mother, snapping at Syd. Shocked, the blonde started mumbling to herself. Her mother _never _snapped at her before. Never told her off before. Never. "Stop whining!"

Syd lagged behind. She passed by two teenagers and a small boy. Both teens looked at least 17. The girl had short brown hair. She had on a yellow shirt with a black jacket pulled over and jeans. The other teen had brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. He had this kiddish air around him, unlike the girl who had more of a 'don't mess with me' kind of feeling. He was wearing a green shirt with the picture of a monkey on it and jeans as well. And curiously, he had a pair of gloves on his hands, even though it wasn't even cold. The smaller kid looked as if he was 10. He had curly red hair and many freckles. The small boy was wearing a white shirt with a jacket, made of the same material as jeans, and a knee length pants. They didn't look alike, but seemed as if they were siblings.

"And the people here are so..." Syd muttered under her breath, not managing to come up with a word to describe the three people she passed by. It wasn't as if there was anything wrong with them, she just needed more reasons to hate living here more. "I can't wait to get back home where I don't have to meet with all these kind of people," she said, a little louder.

The girl glared at her, and if looks could kill- Syd would be dead. She looked at Syd as if Syd was the lowest of the low, the worse being ever to step on the planet, or the galaxy, in the whole New Tech City. "Watch what you say Pinky," threatened the girl, snarling. Intentionally, she stepped on Syd's branded just bought customnised boot and stomped off.

"Sorry," apologised the older boy, he indeed looked sorry and apologetic. He should. "But I think you really shouldn't make Z angry. She can be really scary sometimes." The younger boy, the red head, nodded, agreeing with the older boy. "Sorry," he repeated, then hurried off, before the girl noticed that the other two boys were gone.

Who cares about what that girl, Z was it her name, thinks. Syd was richer. Syd was better. Syd was prettier. Why should she take orders from some random girl? Why should Syd put up with her? Should that Z girl be the one to put up with Syd? Snorting, Syd walked off, ignoring the boys. "I can't wait to get out of here," she said, loudly. Her parents were already far in front of her. But Syd knew the way to her Aunt's house.

The girl came over, hearing Syd. Perfect. "Who do you think you are Missy? You got a problem?" she asked, angrily. Her friend, the teenager, looked as scared as a... well... as a mouse when it knows that a cat has conered it. "If you hate it here so much, why don't you go away? It's not like we want you here or anything." Syd looked at her coolly.

"Oh what I hate about this filthy, disgusting place?" Syd paused, pretending to think. The gloved teen was shaking his head wildly and waving his hands, motioning for Syd to stop. She ignored him. Scoffing, Syd continued, "Hmm... Oh I don't know. Maybe it's because there's people like you and him in it. This place is not even fit for pigs to live." The girl looked livid.

"Look Pinky, insult me all you want. But don't you dare drag Bridge and Sam into this. Apparently you didn't realise that it's I'm the one you have a problem with. Or are you too thick to notice that?" retored the furious girl. She looked as if she wanted to beat Syd to a pulp. "Now why not you go back to your perfect pretty in Pink world and leave us alone?" The gloved teen smacked his head, wincing. The smaller boy was whispering to the girl to stop quarrelling and let it go. "Sam, you and Bridge just go back first ok?" she told the kid. He shook his head, urging the girl to stop quarrelling.

"Aww... Why don't you just obey your friend and just go? He knows I'm right. Like your friend over there- What's he wearing? Gloves? Now? If that's not weird I don't know what is." The girl snapped. She lunged at Syd, intent of bruising every part of Syd.

"Z! Z! Z!" cried the younger boy, trying to pull the fighting teenagers apart. The girl apparently had a wide knowlege of martial arts. Syd on the other hand knew martial arts too. She knew fencing, she was the World Fencing Champion in the world. "Bridge!" he called out to the gloved teen, who looked as if he was in enormous pain. "Bridge! Help!" he cried, desperatedly. "Z! STOP!" Feeling desperate, the younger boy did the only thing he knew what to do in this situation. He raised his hand and the girl disappeared. Then she re-appeared a few metres away from Syd. "Stop!" he yelled, one more time, just to make sure he got it in the girl's head.

The teen looked downright sorry and ashamed. She went over to the gloved teen, who had curled himself into a ball and had squeezed his eyes shut. "Bridge? You OK?" she asked, surprisingly gently. "OK, untense. Untense..." she said. Syd glared at all three of them and walked off, dusting off any dust she had gotten on her shirt. What's wrong with that boy? "Bridge, look at me. Look, everything's OK. No one's angry now..." she whispered to the shaking teen. Slowly he untensed and stopped shaking. Syd watched, hiding behind a pillar, curious, wondering what was happening. "You OK now?" He nodded, and whispered something in the girl's ear. "We know you're there Pinky," she said, loudly. Syd gasped and ran off, after her parents.

xxx

"At least I got my own room," said Syd, consoling herself. She was sitting on a- her bed in her Aunt's house. "At least I got my own room..." Her parents had relented and let her claim the largest room. Her Aunt pampered her and also let her have that room. Something about just now bugged her. Something about that kid with gloves bugged her. Why did he (what's the right word?) go so tense? And what's with the gloves? Syd had a weird feeling about him. And that Sam kid, how had he managed to make the girl disappear off her and appear away from her? Did he have powers like her? "Fist of Iron," she whispered, clutching a small iron bar. Her fist shone light pink, the light was comforting and warm, and then faded, revealing her now iron fist. Was that small kid the same as her? Was he a _freak,_ as the kids last time put crudely, like her? Were they all?

Syd closed her eyes, her head hurting with so many confusing thoughts, and lay down on her bed. She was psychically and mentally exhuasted. Somehow the fight with that teen had drained her- a lot. Thinking of comebacks and trying not to get her eyes scratched out. That was kind of tiring in a way. Syd drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

xxx

"Remember that girl yesterday?" asked Z. Bridge nodded. Her friends, Jack and Sky, promted her to go on. "She was a total bi-" Bridge waved his hand, doing a cutting motion across his throat. Z turned around and saw Sam. No bad words that Sam would probably learn soon around him. He would learn them. Eventually... "Hi Sam." Her brother, adopted, walked towards them, burried in his newspaper. "Homework?" Sam gave his sister a thumbs up. "Need help?" He shook his head.

"Woah... Check this out!" Sam said excitedly. He placed the newspaper on the ground, motioning for the others to see what he had discovered. "Look at this!" He pointed to an article. Bridge balanced his plate of toast on his knee and bent down.

"Local Pedigree Breeder Bankrupt through Shares," said Bridge, reading the title of the news article out loud. "Jonathan Drew.. blah blah blah... Dabbled in shares... blah.. blah.. blah... Bankrupt. Blah blah... Lost everything?" He recited as he skimmed through the article. "Drew... That sounds familiar?"

"Duh," Z said, rolling her eyes. "He's the father of that who- I mean that girl we met yesterday." Something clicked. "So that Sydney person is downright poor. And she acts like she's the queen of everything? Guess we know her little secret now..." Z grinned evily. "That means she is doesn't even have a single cent to her name. Hah! She's even poorer than us!"

Jack groaned. "Z give it a rest..." He was sparring with Sky. Both ending up quite bruised. Jack because Sky kept using his genetic power, forcefield creation, so he kept crashing into them. And Sky because Jack was also using his genetic power. He was standing in front of trees and when Sky was about to attack him, Jack would simply phase through the ground and let Sky smack into the tree. He yelped as Sky charged after him, and phased through the ground again, before re-surfacing a few seconds and metres later.

"How do you know what her name is anyway?" asked Sam, curious and suspicious.

Z replied, "She's an Olympian, singer and god knows what. Basically she's an all-rounder in everything except politeness..."

Just then, Syd came around. strutting as if she owned the place. "Speak of the devil," muttered Z.

"Sam! FREEZE!" cried Bridge. He and Sam had started to play ball. Bridge had thrown the ball a little too hard, and it flew... and flew... and flew... Sam, wanting to catch it, just ran after it. He didn't see Syd behind him. And crashed. "Ouch..." Sam and Syd were lying sprawled on the ground. Bridge ran over to help Sam up and to again apologise to Syd. "You alright?" he asked, to both, just as the rest of the group gathered around the two to see the 'damage'.

"Get off me!" shouted Syd, pushing Sam away. "Why don't you watch where you're going?" Why was these bad things always happening to her? Why? Oh, it was the same three kids again. This time with another two teens. Were they trying to make her stay here a living hell? Or did they just like pestering people? "You guys again..." said Syd, annoyed.

Glarring daggers at Syd, Z helped her little brother up. "Why don't you watch you are saying?" retorted Z.

Bridge, ever the peace maker, sensed another fight. "Don't we have to get back home now? Right your mum said that right?" he stammered out, partially afraid to get in the middle of the two girls' fight. He looked at the others frantically.

"Yeah, Z mum said it's time to go now," said Sam, backing up Bridge. Although it was obvious that Z wouldn't really care.

"_Your mum?_" asked Syd, in disbelief. "What about your own parents? Are you living with them or something? What did your parents abandon you?" She didn't mean it. In her heart, she didn't mean it. But she needed to convince herself that this boy, like the rest of the group, was bad news. Something about him, was so... innocent. She wanted to convince herself otherwise.

"Hey, hey, hey, that's out of line," replied Jack, stepping up to the 'batting plate'.

"They... died," said Bridge, so quietly that Syd almost couldn't hear him. "In a fire..."

There was something about the way he said it. So child-like... Something in his voice that made Syd immediately regret making her scathing remark. Why did she even say such an awful thing? Why was she being so mean to people who might be good friends? "I'm sorry," said Syd.

"No you're not," answered Bridge, mechanically. "You're not," he repeated, his voice was cold and hard, starring solidly at the ant crawling along the side walk carring a leaf.

"What makes you think you own this place? Just because you're what? A superstar? A Olympian? Well you're nothing if you don't even know how to be nice to someone who is actually nice to you in the first place! I'm even surprised if you can even afford to live here! We know everything! We know that your family is down right poor!" lashed out Z. No one messes with her friends. No one messes with them.

"What are you talking about? I'm richer than all of you people combined. Heck- I don't even know what the heck I'm doing here," replied Syd, coolly and calmly. This was the new arguement that girl was setting? Yeah right... She poor? Never in a million centuries...

Z smirked. "Stop acting, we all know." She took the newspaper and flipped to the selected page, thrusting it into Syd's hands. "Read and find out, we all know your dirty little secret..."

Syd scanned the article. It took forever for her to digest the information. Bankrupt? Her? It can't be. But... The newspaper. And the article... But daddy didn't tell her... Papa and mama lied to her? They never lied. They wouldn't. The-

"Got it?" asked Z. "Good..." She smiled sweetly and snatched the paper back. Her smile got wider as she saw Sydney falter. And turn around to run away. "Served her right," she said.

Bridge sensing something amiss, yanked off his glove and read Syd's aura. "Guys, she didn't know. Her parents didn't tell her. She didn't know," he repeated.

"So what? Soon she would have to know. We're just speeding up that process," defended Z. "Besides she deserved it. What she said to you. And how she treated Sam." Bridge opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and looked down on the ground again.

Was Z right? Did that girl- Sydney, deserve it? Why wouldn't her parents tell her in the first place? Was it to spare her from the truth? That would mean that they were the first ones to tell her. That would mean... She was kept completely in the dark. Until they told her. She didn't deserve everything. No matter whatever Sydney did say to him. It wasn't fair that it was them who told her. Especially Z. But-

"You're right Bridge..." sighed Z. Bridge looked up, surprised, that Z had known what he was thinking of. "I'd better go- apologise..." Her eyes glowed yellow as she used her own genetic power, being able to duplicate herself. She nodded to her duplicate and she sent off to find Syd. "What about the rest of you?" asked the real Z. The others nodded yes. Bridge sticking with the real Z. Sam with Jack.

xxx

Something about being near a waterbody calmed Syd down. It could be because of the rhymthemic sound of the water flowing. Or it could be because of the peaceful feeling she got whenever she was near a river or a lake. Thankfully there was a small river near the houses. Actually Syd had no idea there was a river nearby. It was just that... Something had drawn her there. Some connection. It was like a picture in a book. Green pastures and a small flowing lake. A few rocks along the banks and a bunch of wild flowers too. Syd sat on one of the rocks, watching the flowing water, her mind clear as a sheet. The world around her was silent except for the sound of water. Peaceful. Calm. Syd wished that she could stay like that forever. She would rather stay here than face the truth.

Her parents had lied to her. About the bankruptcy. Why would they lie to her? Syd stared unblinkingly at the water. It numbed her mind. Making her thoughts seem slower, making the world seem less complicated.

xxx

Bridge took off his glove again, scanning for Syd. His brown eyes concentrated in reading the results. "I can't find her," he announced, blankly. Did he want to find her? Yes he did. It was the right thing. It was the correct thing. Syd is a good person deep down that mask she put on. She is. He tried again, trying to ignore that irritating doubtful side of him. She did bring up dad and mum. And she was mean to Sam and Z. But... Face the facts, he didn't really want to find her. Heck, he didn't even care if she would go away forever. She was mean. She didn't deserve to be found.

"Can you try again?" prompted Z.

"I don't want to find her," stated Bridge bluntly. "No. She's mean to you and Sam. She doesn't deserve to be found." Bridge was like that sometimes. Truthful, to the point. But he hardly ever voiced his own personal emotions, unless asked, too plagued by everyone else's around him.

"Bridge... It's about your mum and dad right? About what she said..." guessed Z, knowing she was right. True enough, Bridge nodded slowly, not sure if he should continue. Z sighed. "Bridgey..." She enveloped him in a warm hug. "It's ok alright... You don't have to find her if you don't want to," she consoled. Bridge broke down, starting to cry.

"I miss them..." he choked out, in between tears. "I miss them so much..."

"Bridgey, you could have told us. Instead of keeping quiet," comforted Z, she patted Bridge on the head. "You can tell me anything and everything. I'm your 'sister'."

"I miss them," he repeated. "She's not mean," he added after a few minutes of crying. "She didn't know. I want to find her."

"Are you sure?" asked Z. "It doesn't matter if you don't want to..."

"I'll help to find her," said Bridge, drying his tears on his sleeve. "Sorry," he added, spotting the large wet spot on the top side of Z's shirt.

Z smiled, "It's ok." All he needed was just someone to confide in. "If you have anything, just tell me. I'm here for you," she assurred.

Bridge took of his glove and concentrated, harder than before. "Where would she go? Where would she go? Where would she go?" he mumbled to himself, repeatedly. I do want to find her. I do want to find her. "I got it!" he announced, happily. "The river," he stated simply.

Z beamed at her psychic friend. "Let's get cracking."

xxx

Someone was coming. She could hear foot steps. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? Didn't they know she wanted to be alone? Snarling, she turned around to face the interupter.

"Hello," said a familiar voice. It was _her_. And her friend. Z and Bridge, was it their names? "Hey. Hi. Umm..." she paused, not knowing what to say. "About just now..." She sounded apologetic, sorry, sympathetic even... Why would she?

"What do you want?" asked Syd, bitter. Anger coursed through her veins, she hated this girl more than ever. "Get lost!" she half shouted. Z stayed there, Bridge lagging behind.

"I just wanted to-" Z started to explain.

"Go away! Or else..." Syd threatened. Around her waist was a belt of different materials, something she had crafted the day she had learned complete control of her powers. She grabbed the iron bar in the belt. "FIST OF IRON!" Her fist glew an angry shade of pink, before revealing her fist of iron. "Go away..." she muttered. Then suddenly, she lunged at Z, hitting her, as hard as she could bear to, in the stomach, making her fly back a few metres.

This girl has powers like them? Like her, Bridge, Sam, Sky and Jack? Z fell heavily on the ground, groaning. She doubled up in pain, rolling up into a ball. "NNnnghhh..." She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop the pain. That girl sure knew how to hit. "Z, are you ok?" asked Bridge, running over to help his 'sister'. "Are you ok?" he asked again, after receiving no reply.

All of a suden a fleet of buzzing robots appeared. "Huh?" Syd looked around. They were surrounded. And these robots did not look friendly. She threw a casual glance at Z. Had she really hit her that hard?

"Z..." Bridge shook her gently, whislt surveying the newcomers frantic. He was getting a bad vibe from them. Dark. Evil. The duplicator didn't respond, still curled up. The robots just stood there, as if waiting for something. "Open your eyes. Open your eyes," he begged, desperate for a response. Then they attacked. Yelping, Bridge stood up, falling into a defensive position.

Her fist still made of iron, Syd was able to damage a few of the robots, before over using her power too much, making her iron fist fade away. "Uh oh..." she muttered.

The three of them were over powered.

xxx

"So do you think they found Sydney?" asked Jack. He and Sam had been walking for fifteen minutes. Sam shrugged. "Wana bet who finds her first?"

"No way..." answered Sam, waving his hands. "Bridge will find her. He can do that psychic aura tracking thing." Jack nodded.

"Good point..."

As Sam was about to bring up another topic, a bunch of weird things appeared in front of them. Shocking the hell out of them. "What's that?" asked Sam, cautious. No one else he knew could teleport. The only person he knew was well... him.

"I have no idea, but I don't think they're our new neighbours," answered Jack. The things attacked. Although Sam and Jack were using their genetic powers to defend themselves, they were defeated.

xxx

"I wonder if..." Sky mused out loud. Deep in thought, he accidentally bumped into someone. "Sorry..." he said quickly, before carrying on with his quest to find the missing blonde. The person grabbed him suddenly, tightly. "What the-"

The person was a spandex clad humanoid. There were a group of them. "Hey let go!" shouted Sky, creating a force field blowing the robot back. "Hah..." he smirked. Then he was caught by surprise as half a dozen or more robots held both his arms back, making it impossible for him to create the force fields.

xxx

"Yes... The plan is being brought into motion..." muttered an alien being, watching a few monitors, each showing a few of the human beings with genetic powers being captured. "Earth shall be mine!"

xxx

Kinda weird, some parts. Please review!

Blackie Frogz


	2. Something wrong

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

Disclaimer: Don't own Power Rangers.

xxxx

"Give it up Jack," said Bridge, watching his friend. Sam, Jack and Sky had also been captured by those weird spandex clad robots. They had been thrown into a cage like cell thing. Jack yelled in frustration again as he finally realised that he couldn't phase out of the prison, and that if he tried, the walls would emit a small, but painful nonetheless, eletric shock. "Somehow they managed to nuetralize our genetic powers in here. Which if you ask me, is pretty weird because I don't get how they knew we had genetic powers in the first place. But since all of us here has genetic powers, they probably know... That probably means that our powers have something to do with this whole thing," continued Bridge, now dong a hand stand.

"All of us have genetic powers?" asked Jack, throwing a glance at Syd, who was sitting at the other end of the prison, isolated from the rest from them, and biting her nail thoughtfully. "What about her?"

"What do you think happened to Z?" replied Bridge. Z was sleeping peacefully, with Sky's lap as a pillow. Sleeping always took pain away, according to Bridge. And Z wasn't exactly looking as if she was in pain. "She kinda got hit by her and yeah..." Sky smiled wryly at Bridge, both Sam and Z were using him as pillows, so he could not move or risk waking one or the other up.

Marching over to Syd, Jack demanded angrily, "What did you do with Z?" Bridge had decided telling the others the whole details of the earlier confrontation, afraid of what the others might do and say and basically feel. And he was right. They would be angry. They would want to know exactly what happened. And they would be surprised. No one besides the five of them, Sam, Z, Bridge, Jack and Sky, actually knew who else had powers like them. That was the core reason why they were good friends in the first place, the bond they had forged through their powers, the fact that there parents knew each other helped too.

"I'm sorry," said Syd, feeling a little bad for what she did. She had attacked Z with no reason. From what Bridge told her, when they were alone in the cell, they had been looking for her to apologise for what Z had said earlier. And instead, Syd had injured her. Thankfully, according to Bridge, Z wasn't hurt that bad, only bruised. No broken bones. Or anything fatal. "I'm sorry," she repeated, looking down on the ground. "I didn't know that I'd hit her so hard and-"

"You WHAT?" shouted Jack.

Z shot awake, woken up by Jack's explosion. Startled, she looked around, confused at her surroundings. "Where are we?" she asked, both tiredly and panicked. Sky put a finger to his lips and pointed at Sam, making a 'Shh'-ing sound, glaring at Jack. "Oh."

"We don't know either," answered Bridge, shrugging.

"We're all here," said Z, observing the others.

xxx

"Why are they important? I don't get it. Why must we capture them?" pestered Mora. Empreror Grumm groaned, why had he even got this little girl in the first place? "Why? Why? I don't get it. What so nice about their planet anyway?"

"You will KEEP QUIET!" shouted Grumm, pissed. His eyes flashed red dangerously.

"Can I play with one of them?" she asked, a little meekly. Grumm could turn her back into... The other her. She was bored playing only with Cindy Sunshine. "I'll get the least dangerous and fight-y one," she pleaded. "Please..."

"OK! OK!" answered Grumm, doing anything to get Mora out of his non-existant hair.

"Yay!" cried the little girl and ran off, with her doll in her arm and malice in her mind.

xxx

The stone door of the cell opened, surprisingly silent. "Hello," said Mora, greeting the prisoners. She smiled sweetly at all of them, whislt using her hand to comb her precious Cindy Sunshine's hair. "I want to play with you." Her smile gew wider, at the surprised expressions on their faces. "We'll play tea," she said. Then she noticed the sleeping Sam. "Why he is sleeping? I AM TALKING!" she screamed, shocking Sam up and destroying their impressions of Mora being a nice, sweet, little girl. She remembered the deal she had made with Grumm. The one with the weakest genetic power. Mora knew who. "I want to play with him," she said, pointing at Bridge.

"Why Bridge?" injected Z, standing up, ignoring the pain as she did.

"Because," Mora said sweetly, and gently. "He's the weakest." She let out a cold laugh, so unlike the way she nice innocent spoke, which made them realise that this girl was not an ordinary little girl, but a one that might have a split personality, or a psychopath.

"Weakest? What are you talking about?" demanded Z, Jack and Sky at the same time. Bridge, instead, looked down on the floor. Was he really the weakest?

"He has the least powerful genetic power out of the six of you," explained Mora, in a long-suffering voice. "So do you want to have tea with me?" she asked, in her sweet little girl voice again. "If you don't, I can get your friends vapourised. Like that girlie." Pointing to Z, inwardly she beamed at Bridge's panicked look. "Or them." She geustured to the rest of the group. "If you have tea with me, I'll release your friends, and when you have tea with me. You can leave the ship too."

"I can't say no can I?" replied Bridge, slowly. "Sure why not. But I don't really drink tea."

Mora brightened up. "It's pretend tea," she said, and geustured for Bridge to follow her.

"And them?" he asked, accusingly.

"They'll go back home," she said, snapping her fingers. There was a five second pause and the five of them disappeared in a flash of light, similar to how the robots appeared. "C'mon! I'll introduce you to Cindy Sunshine and we can play all day!" She skipped along the corridor, laughing and giggling so innocently it would be hard to believe that she could actually suggest vapourising anyone, with Bridge trailing reluctantly behind.

xxx

Mora was true to her word. They indeed were back on Earth. But without their psychic friend. "We got to get back up there! Bridge is there, that girl might be lying. What if-"

"Z! Z! Calm down!" cried Jack, shaking the frantic and rambling duplicator. "We need a plan! I mean we can't just go and charge up onto that place thing and just go grab Bridge."

Syd was surprised at the sight of Z almost on the edge of a panic attack. The whole group must have a big family bond. "If we could just teleport there," she mummered thoughtfully. "I mean, that's how we got there wasn't it?"

Sam grinned and started jumping up and down. "I can do it! I can do it!" he proclaimmed, loudly and energetic. "I can do it!"

"No way kiddo," stated Sky, shaking his head, and pushing Sam down, so he would stop bouncing around the group. "You don't even know where that place is. All we know about that place is practically nothing. Only that Bridge is there, having 'tea' with that girl. And for all we know, this might be more complicated than we think it is." Sam frowned, just as he was about to protest. Sky interrupted, "Besides I know that you know that all of us know that you can't teleport more than two people, much less the whole group of us, without being extremely exhausted." Sam pondered over Sky's reasoning for a while, before opening his mouth to say something. When Sky continued, "No you can't go alone." Glaring at Sky, Sam stopped trying to 'out smart' the force field creator.

"Sky's right," agreed Jack. "Look. It's already so late. We have to get home. Just tell your mum that Bridge is... That Bridge is at his friend's house. Sleeping over or something like that. Do not tell her the truth," instructed Jack, taking charge of the situation. "Try to think of a plan, meet here tomorrow at 8."

"But-" Before Z could finish her sentence, she was silenced by that _look_ Jack alway gave her when she was being 'unreasonable'. Grumbling, she agreed. So did the others. "Tomorrow, 8, meet here, save Bridge?" Jack nodded. "Sure. Oh and Syd. Sorry about just now..."

Syd looked surprised, she still wanted to apologise? "I'm sorry too." The two of them smiled at each other.

xxx

"So what do you like to play?" asked Bridge, uncertain. He was getting very bad vibes from Mora. Bridge then realised that his powers had kicked back in, that probably meant that the shield which stopped their powers from working had only been limited to the cell which they were confined in. Mora was emitting dark and negative emotions, which reminded Bridge, forcibly, of a black hole, sucking all positive emotions and replacing it with evil and sadness. Unwillingly, he shivered. It was getting cold.

Mora led him into her room. Cindy Sunshine was already in her seat. She smiled, there was also another reason why she chose this boy. Not only because he had the weakest powers, but because of what his powers were. "We're going to have pretend tea," stated Mora, simply. She pulled out a chair and motioned for Bridge to sit on it. Warily, he agreed to, hoping that the 'pretend' tea party would end soon so he could go back home. Mora had switched back to her sweet little 'I'm just a kid' mode. "Would you like to carry Cindy Sunshine?" she asked, politely, holding out the disfigured and hairless except for hairs a few doll.

"No thank you," said Bridge, quickly, refraining from touching anything that the girl might offer him. He was afraid of the feelings and emotions he would get if it actually came in contact with his skin.

Mora switched into her other personality. The demanding, unreasonable one. "You WILL carry her NOW!" she yelled, at the top of her voice at the cowering psychic. "YOU WILL CARRY HER NOW!" she shouted, even louder than the first shout she had released. "Or else..."

"Okay... Okay..." said Bridge, quickly, getting a serious head ache from the shouting and loud emotions that Mora was emitting. As long as it didn't touch his skin, he would be fine... He grabbed the doll and pretended to cradle it like a baby. "Er... Rock-a-bye baby?" he said, unsure. It had been a long while since he played with dolls. The last time he ever played with a doll was when he was 6. And he had been playing with Z. And they were making the dolls wrestle each other.

Mora grinned, evilly. "Why don't you take off your gloves? You can't play with Cindy Sunshine with gloves," said Mora, strict. "Take your gloves OFF!" Bridge shook his head. "NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW!"

xxx

"Now! Now! Now!" Grumm sighed. What was Mora yelling about again? It's not like there was anyone with her right now. Right? With a roar, he got up to check why Mora was being such a pain.

"MORA!" he yelled, as he entered the room. His gaze fell on the green clad, glove wearing brunette teen, sitting on one of the chairs, opposite Mora, holding Cindy Sunshine. "Why is he out of the cell?" he asked, enraged. "He should be locked up tight with the others!"

Mora got up, unsure. "Well..." She started, her heart beating wildly. She threw a glance at her 'friend'. He was with his eyes squeezed shut, and his hands over his ears. Perfect. "I let the others go. I have a plan," she stated simply. Grumm's red eyes flashed dangerously. "Now calm down. Calm down, Grummy. My plan is to use him against his friends. Then all we have to do is just get the genetic powers," she said, waving her hands. Bridge didn't seem to hear her. "All I have to do is get those gloves off his hands. And everything would go smoothly. They would never want to fight or hurt their friend would they?"

"You're lucky this time," he said, his voice low and threatening. With one swift motion, he grabbed Bridge and pulled off the glove on his right hand. Mora giggled, tossing him Cindy Sunshine.

"Let me go!" cried Bridge, panicking. His glove was off. His glove was off. His glove was off. "Let me go!" He struggled against Grumm's grip, but the effort was futile. Grumm was much stronger than him. Cindy Sunshine found her way to his hand. There was a whirlwind of pictures that didn't make sense to him. He heard Mora and the Grumm guy laughing evily. He knew that Grumm had put him back on the ground, but he was too weak to get up. Then everything went black. And he could not remember anything.

xxx

"Where's Bridge?" asked Mrs. Delgado. She had a soft spot for the teen, thinking him not only as a friend's son but actually a son of hers. Which was probably the reason why she decided to take him in after that horrible fire.

"He's... At his friend's house. They're having a all night gaming marathon," said Z, lying and not looking her mother in the eye. Mrs Delgado regarded her daughter carefully. She looked very troubled. She scanned her adopted son's, Sam, face. He looked troubled too. "He said that he is really sorry he forgot to tell you but-" She broke off.

Sam quickly cut in, talking at the speed of a 100m/h. "But he said that he already finished all his homework and thinks that if you want to ground him you have every right to when he comes back home." He smiled, innocently. "Bye mum! Z's going to help me with my homework." Then he pushed his sister into his room, before Mrs Delgado could reply. Shaking her head, she wondered why the children looked so troubled.

xxx

"What if he doesn't come back? What if she lied? What if he's injured? What if he's-" Sam cut Z off, with a loud groan.

"Z, you have many 'What ifs'. Don't worry. That girl kept her promise with us didn't she? We're here. Back home. She'll honour her promise and let Bridge come home ok?" said Sam, trying to make his sister less frantic. He never did understand why Z often worried about Bridge so much. It was probably because Bridge behaved like a small boy and Z had this 'protective big sister' thing. Sam knew that Bridge once stood up for Z before, when they were being teased for their powers. "Don't worry," he said again.

"I don't know... I just have this really bad feeling..." stated Z.

xxx

I hope you like this chapter. I was afraid that it might not be as long as I expected it to be. I couldn't phrase some parts correctly... If you have any ideas, please tell me. I already planned out the story, but I think it's a little short. So if you have any ideas. Just tell me via review.

Could have updated sooner, but with my lazyness... Hehe...

Blackie Frogz


	3. Flashbacks and Reflections

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers.

xxx

"Shh," whispered Z, holding a finger to her lips. "Don't tell mum or dad I'm going out." She opened the cupboard and got out her favourite black jacket, and pulled it over her yellow shirt. She smoothed out the creases in her long pants, as Sam nodded.

"I'll beep you if I hear them coming," said Sam, tapping the phone they had in the room (well actually it was Z's room, but Sam wanted to sleep with her that night, because of the missing Bridge). "Then tell me where you are and I'll port you back."

Z nodded. As she opened the bedroom window, her eyes flashed yellow, creating a duplicate at the bottom of the house. She made the 'real' her disappear, now becoming the 'duplicate'. Sam waved to her, smiling. Z gave him a thumbs up and walked off.

xxx

Syd sat down on her bed, drying her long, blonde hair. She closed her eyes, feeling extremely tired. Yet, she didn't want to sleep. She was troubled from the events that happened just now in the afternoon.

There were other people in the world who had genetic powers. They were captured by some weird alien girl. Bridge agreed to stay in the place so they could be sent back to Earth. Somehow these events, Syd figured, didn't happen just accidentally. She was sure

that this was 'fated' that someone up there planned these events so that they would meet.

Her mother and her father were quarrelling again. Syd was sure that they were arguing about her father's blunder resulting in the family's bankruptcy. Listening carefully, she made sure that her parents were quarrelling in their room.

She opened the door. Her parents were indeed in their room. Fishing the house keys out of her bag left in the living room, she went out of the house. After locking the door behind her, she stuffed the keys in her pocket and ran away quickly in case anyone saw her out of the house.

xxx

Syd shivered. It was a cold night. She cursed herself for not bringing a jacket. Syd was in a sleeveless pink top and black short pant. What an idiot she was, it was no wonder she was so cold.

"Boo!" said Z, creeping up behind Syd, scaring the day lights out of her. Syd screamed, before Z clamped her hand down on Syd's mouth. "Shhhh…. You'd wake the whole neighborhood up!"

"Well sorry, I'm not used to having people sneak up on me in the middle of the night," replied Syd. "Which brings me to my next question: What are you doing up so late anyway?"

"Couldn't sleep," answered Z simply. "Sam couldn't too, but he's doing the night watch." She regarded Syd. "And you?"

Syd sighed. "I don't even know how my aunt sleeps through the thing. My mum and dad are kinda quarrelling. They seem to do that pretty often. In fact, even before coming here, they already started quarrelling. So I don't get why Dad married her in the first place," she said.

"Marry her?" asked Z, quizzically.

"Yeah… My mum, my _real_ mum, she died when I was 5. From heart problems. I can't really remember her clearly though. But everything was fine then. I remember everything was happy and she and Dad were really in love. Then my other mum came along and Dad married her. I was 7. She used to be real nice, but recently she and Dad always quarrel."

FLASHBACK

"_Pa pa, where's Ma ma?" asked five year old Syd, in one of her hands was her newly bought stuff toy, Peanuts, she was sitting down on one of those plastic grey chairs outside an operation theatre. "Where's Ma ma?" she asked again, pestering her already stressed father. "I don't like this place… It's cold," she added, whining. _

_Resisting the urge to scream at his naive daughter, the father continued pacing around. His footsteps seemed to echo off the corridor. Was she alright? "I don't like this place!" said Sydney again, shrieking loudly. _

"_Ma ma is just having a little nap. We're waiting for her," he said, not sure how to properly explain the situation to his daughter. "The doctors are looking after her."_

"_Why must it be here? It's cold. There's something bad here. Something very bad," replied Syd, shivering. "Everything is so straight and not messy. I don't like here. I want to go home!" _

_The door to the operation theater opened silently. The doctor came out. He looked… Sad. "I'm sorry," he started. This was hardest part, breaking the news that they failed. "We tried our best. I'm sorry," he repeated. He scurried off, before he had to face the husband's anger, grief, despair._

_Syd ran to the door, trying to open it. "Doctor went out. Where's Ma ma? I want to show her Peanuts," she babbled, oblivious to her mother's death. "Open! Open! Open!" she shouted at the door, following a show she had watched another day. "Open Sesa- Seaaane…" She paused. "Oh yeah! Open Sesame!" To her disappointment the door remained firmly closed, with her mother on the other side. "Pa pa, get the door open!" _

_She was Gone. Gone. A tear slid slowly down his cheek, followed by another and another. A whirlwind of emotions raged through him. Sadness, grief at his wife's death. Anger, rage at the doctor's incompetence, at his wife for even getting injured so that she had to be brought to the hospital. She was Gone. And money couldn't bring her back. No matter how much he had, he would never be able to bring her back. He had never felt so helpless. Syd tugged on his sleeve, snapping him out of his self pity._

"_Pa pa, open the door. I want to see Ma ma. She will like Peanuts, cause Peanuts is an elephant and Ma ma likes elephants," she said, tugging harder when she noticed her father wasn't doing what she asked. "Pa pa. Why are you crying?" She asked, noticing the tears halfway down his face. "Don't cry. I'll let you play with Peanuts too!" She waved her elephant in front of him. She frowned, why was Pa pa not talking to her? "Let's go see Ma ma now!" she said again, pulling his arm now._

"_Sydney…" he began. "Ma ma isn't coming back," he said softly. "She's gone to heaven." _

_Syd paused. Heaven? "Where's heaven? I want to go there too! Let's go there! I want to show Ma ma Peanuts!" _

"_Ma ma is dead. She died," said her father, bluntly. "She is going to sleep forever."_

"_Dead?" The word seemed foreign to her. She heard it before when she was watching television. "Died?" They meant the same thing right? Ma ma was dead? But Ma ma is invincible. She can't die. Dead and die are for people not like Ma ma, for the people in the television and the bad guys. Ma ma isn't a person in the television or a bad guy. She's a teacher. "But Ma ma can't die. Ma ma is not bad or a television person," said Syd, confused. _

"_Syd, Ma ma's gone. She's dead," repeated her father. _

"_MA MA CAN'T DIE!" she shouted at her father. "MA MA CAN'T DIE! SHE'S NOT DEAD!" She tried to open the door. "They just closed the door cause Ma ma isn't ready to come out!" Pulling hard on the door handle she shouted, "Ma ma! Open! I'm here with Peanuts! And Pa pa! Open the door!" The door didn't open. She started to cry._

_xxx_

"_Pa pa who's that?" asked Sydney. She was now 7. She pointed to the woman who was walking towards them. "Is she your secret friend?" Her Pa pa told her that he had a secret friend. Was this the person? She fit the bill. She was as tall, or maybe slightly shorter, as Pa pa. She had red hair which was up to her shoulder. She had green eyes. She looked like how Pa pa told her his secret friend looked like. _

_He nodded smiling. "She's going to be your Ma ma," he said. It was their wedding day. His and Carol's. He was dressed in a suit, dressed to the nines. Sydney too was all dressed up. A pink hair band placed on top of her head, her hair flowing down. Matching the hair band was a light pink dress with floral designs which she was wearing. _

"_My Ma ma?" she asked questioningly. "I thought you said that Ma ma is gone to heaven? How can she be my Ma ma? She doesn't even look like Ma ma."_

"_I know this is late. I know I should have told you earlier. This is Carol, my secret friend. We're very in love. Like last time Ma ma and me. Because we're in love, I want to marry her. And then you'll have a Ma ma again. And we can be a happy family cause then I would have a wife and you would have a Ma ma and Carol will have a husband and a daughter. Wouldn't that be fun?" he explained. Syd shook her head._

"_Why?" she asked._

"_You'll like her. She's really nice," he answered. Syd didn't reply, staring at the woman who would replace her darling Ma ma. _

_xxx_

_A 12 year old Sydney cowered in her room as she heard her parents quarrel. Again. "WHY ARE YOU BACK SO LATE?" screamed her mother._

"_YOU'RE NOT IN CHARGE OF ME!" replied her Pa pa. They were having these fights so often now. And it was always so loud. Too loud that Syd couldn't sleep. She was afraid that her parents would decide to divorce. _

_The quarrels usually lasted for slightly over an hour. Then everything would fall into perfect order. They would kiss and make up. Syd always wondered if they were just having these fights for fun, just for an excuse to make out after the whole thing._

_xxx _

"That must suck," stated Z. "You know you seem, _nicer_… I mean I thought you were a stuck up prat. But you're different… Cause the way you act, you pretend everything is alright. That you life is like so perfect and glam and awesome. But it's not. Right?"

Syd nodded. "Thanks. I think…" She found it hard to believe that she was actually bonding with the person who she had hated extremely a few days before. "And I'm sorry about what I said about your friend, Bridge. The parents thing…"

"Don't worry. Bridge isn't someone to actually hold a grudge. He's that kinda guy. And cause he can't afford to have to hate someone, with the whole sensing other's emotions thing," said Z.

"Excuse this question, but what happened?" asked Syd.

"A fire," answered Z. "Their house caught fire. Somehow. Bridge managed to escape in time. His mother pushed him out. Then when his parents was about to escape. The house collapsed on them."

"How do you know? I mean about what really happened," asked Syd. "I don't think that Bridge would just tell you all these stuff. If I were him, I'd rather just keep mum."

"Cause I was there…"

FLASHBACK

"_Tag! YOU'RE IT!" shouted Z at the top of her voice as she tagged Bridge. Giggling she ran off, before Bridge could catch her again._

_That's when she noticed the smoke. She stopped suddenly, causing Bridge to slam headfirst into her. The two picked themselves up. "Now you're it!" said Bridge, grinning. His messy brown hair was now even more messy._

"_Bridge look. There's smoke," whispered Z, as if if she talked too loudly the smoke would encase them, pointing at the smoke which was drifting out of the kitchen._

"_Why would there be smoke? Unless there's a…" He trailed off._

"_FIRE!" shouted the two friends suddenly alarmed. "MUM! There's a fire!" The two of them sprinted to the basement to tell the two adults, Bridge's parents, about their discovery. "Mummy, Daddy, there's a fire!" said Bridge, tugging his parents. They were working on their automobile, trying to upgrade it. "Hurry. See the smoke!" He pointed at the grey air already floating into the room, as if trying to gobble them up in the haze._

"_Mrs and Mr Bridge's parents, hurry," cried Z, watching the smoke come nearer and nearer. "Hurry!" She was close to tears. _

"_Don't be scared Z," said Bridge. He held her hand in his gloved one. Then his mum lifted him up, carrying him. He looked over his shoulder. His dad was also carrying Z. "Don't be scared Z. My Mummy and Daddy will save us." He gave her his mega watt smile, Z smiled back._

_The living room was already smoky. The ceiling looked as if it would collapse at any given time. The room was too smoky. "Crawl," said Mr. Carson, putting Z on the floor as his wife put his son on the floor too. They dropped on all fours. The adults making sure that the children were always ahead. _

_The door seemed ages to reach. A plank fell from the ceiling, nearly hitting Z. She shrieked and stopped. "Don't worry Z," said Bridge, crawling beside her. "I'll crawl with you." _

"_Hurry out!" said Mr. Carson as he saw the children reach the door. They scrambled outside. Bridge stood a few metres away from the door waiting for his parents to emerge safe._

_It never happened. As soon as the two kids were out of the house, the inevitable came. The ceiling caved in. Planks, bricks, building materials all encased in fire fell on the two Carson adults, trapping them in a fiery hell._

"_MUMMY! DADDY!" shouted Bridge. He tried to run back in to somehow safe his parents but Z held him back. "Let me go Z! Let me go!" _

_The firemen came, along with their bright red fire engine. Several moments later, the fire was put out. But no Mummy or Daddy. They were gone. _

"_Bridgey don't cry," said Z, wrapping her arms around him._

_xxx_

"Oh…" said Syd. "I'm sorry for teasing him. I… Didn't know," she said.

"It's ok," replied Z. She checked the time on her wrist watch. "It's getting late, we better go. See you tomorrow." Before Syd could reply, Z already ran off.

"See you tomorrow too," said Syd, to no one.

xxx

"Bring them back here. Alive. But hurt them. The less resistance they put up the better. We need them unconscious for the extracting of their genetic powers. They'd be dead after that anyway. Or we could simply mind wipe them. But why am I telling you this? You don't even know what I'm talking about," said Mora. He nodded vacantly. She sneered. "Wait till they realize that you are under my control. Ooh! How fun that would be!" He nodded again. "You're boring," she said. "Oh well. At least when we rule the world, I can find someone else to play with."

She watched the monitors. The two girls were meeting up. "Nah… We'll wait for tomorrow morning. They're all there anyway. And they can't fight back cause if they do. They'll hurt you," she said to herself, smirking at the blank nodding Bridge.

xxx

Did anyone read 1800-WHERE-R-U? Or When Lightning Strikes by Meg Cabot or Jenny Carrol or something. The boy Sean in that book reminds me of Sam! Hehe… Sorry, rambling off right now.

Hope you like this chapter!

Blackie Frogz


	4. Different and Darker

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers or anything familiar.

xxx

It was a bright and beautiful day. The usual cliché descriptions to describe a wonderful day- the sun was shining, the pretty blue birds in the tree were singing their melodious songs, and there were little clouds in the sky shaped like different sorts of objects. Adults took the opportunity to take their kids out for walks or for a swim or simply just for a picnic and some family bonding time. It was a perfect day to head to the beach to relax and just unwind.

Perfect, that is for anyone who wasn't worrying about their kinda brother who was still held captive by a possibly mentally unstable girl, who had other worldly powers and a split personality that could change with a drop of a dime. And unfortunately, Z, Jack, Sam, Sky and Syd fell under the 'worrying about their friend, mentally unstable, under worldly powers girl' category.

"So did you guys come up with a plan?" asked Z, immediately when she spotted the group of four arriving. She had reached there early, really early- and unluckily, so was Sam. His sister had dragged him out of bed in the wee hours of the morning and made him come with her first. Though Sam had insisted that he knew how to get to the meeting point himself and wanted to sleep in, Z still stubbornly brought him along with her.

"Where's Sam?" asked Sky. Z motioned towards the bench. Sam was lying down on it, sleeping deeply. "Is he really that tired?"

Z nodded affirmative. "I kinda asked him to come along with me first, just a little earlier," she said, feeling slightly guilty. Jack gave her a disbelieving look. "Okay, fine. A hell lot earlier happy? So anyone come up with anything, any plan? Cause I didn't manage to think of one."

"Well…" Jack paused dramatically. "Nope, nothing, zilch. Couldn't think of anything. How about the rest of you guys?"

"Nope."

"Nothing."

"Uh uh," said Sam, now awake, shaking his head. He glared at Sky for waking him up.

"So what do we do now?"

xxx

"The time is now," said Mora, gleefully. She had been looking forward to the morning. There was a major fight in store, or something like a major fight. "Go get them tiger," she said, as if cheering on her brother in a competition. She snapped her fingers and with a flash of bright light, Bridge disappeared.

Mora picked up the abandoned Cindy Sunshine. "Cindy, look! We have something to watch today, a fighting show. Won't this be the most fun thing ever?" she asked, happily. She manipulated her dolly's head to nod. "That's right Cindy. I'll go get something to snack on!" Running quickly to the 'Kitchen' quarters of the ship, she grabbed a packet of chips and ran back to the room, afraid of missing out on anything that might have happened during her absence. Nothing did. "This is going to be fun," she said to herself, smiling. Who cares if Emperor Grummy missed out on this? As long as she could watch it. After all, this was her plan. And it was coming into action...

xxx

"This is hopeless," moaned Sam. They had ran through a couple of ideas. All resulted in inevitable death for all of them, and sometimes even including Bridge. "It's impossible to save Bridge without getting killed. Unless…" An idea occurred to him. Who was supposed to save the day? Who was supposed to protect the people of New Tech City, and even sometimes the world? The answer was simple. "We could ask the people in SPD to help us. I mean they would help right? They are suppose be the people to help the people who need help. And we need help. And we are people."

"That would be a good idea," said Jack, thoughtfully. "If we didn't know that the staff of SPD have more important things to do than to locate a missing friend. Plus would they even listen to us? If we just show up and tell them that some weird girl just naps us all with weird robot things and that she let us all go except for Bridge because she wants to have tea with Bridge? I think they'll throw us into the mental hospital, lock the door and throw away the key. Or they might lock us in an experiment lab when they find out that we have powers, cause I don't think that they met anyone else with powers before. Mental hospital, experiment lab, or left to our own devices? I vote the third option."

There was a moment of pause, when they thought about what Jack said. Then Sky broke the silence. "You know Jack. You think too much." Jack gave a short bow. "That wasn't a compliment," informed Sky wryly.

"I know," replied Jack. "So shifting the topic from the wonderful, fabulous, awesome, incredible me and my too much thinking problem back to the lost Bridge. Basically, we have no idea how to save Br-"

There was a flash of light. "Jack… We don't need a plan anymore," said Z, softly, but still loud enough for the group to hear. "He's here…" She pointed to where the flash of light appeared, and they turned to the direction.

It was Bridge. But he looked different. Not psychically though. It was a feeling. He seemed darker and oddly enough… Sinister. The playful gleam in his chocolate brown eyes was replaced by dull, cold, blank orbs that seemed lifeless. But that couldn't be right, right? Maybe it was just the trick of the light. Or the experience in the place with that girl had just shaken him up badly.

There was a moment of hesitation. No one dared to approach Bridge, because of the new vibes that surrounded him. Then he smiled. It was eerie, vampire like, not like Bridge at all. "Aren't you going to welcome me back?" he asked, his voice (was it?) with a hint of malice. His voice sounded different too. Colder, and more distant. It sounded like there was hatred in his voice. They were unsure of how to respond. All knew that this wasn't the Bridge they unwillingly left behind. "What's wrong?"

"Who are you?" asked Jack. "You're not Bridge."

He smirked. "Don't you recognize me? I'm Bridge. After one day and you can't even recognize your own friend?" he replied. His smirk grew bigger. "Here's something I got for you aboard the ship." A few seconds passed. They seemed like eternity. They felt a sense of dread, a sick feeling in their stomachs as they waited for their 'gifts'. A similar flash of light appeared and in it's wake was a bunch of the robots, Krybots, and another robot with a blue 'X' head, a Blue Head. "Hope you like them," he said.

"What's going on? Bridge, what are you doing?" asked Z, afraid. What was Bridge doing? She balled her fists up, preparing to fight if need be. Out of the corners of her eyes, she saw the others doing the same. Sky took a step in front of Sam, a sign of protection.

A doll appeared along with the robots. Cindy Sunshine. From it, that scary girl's voice emerged from it. "Hello. I think you realize something wrong with your friend." She sounded awfully happy for someone about to tell a group of people that she had brainwashed their friend and had ordered him to destroy or capture them. "That's because I did it!" she squealed enthusiastically. "I made your friend my dolly! So now I have two dollies to play with! Cindy and this boy. I said I'd let him come back to Earth, but I didn't say if he was going to be himself. I love loop holes!" Then as sudden as Cindy appeared, it disappeared, with Mora's shrill giggling.

"I hate loop homes," grumbled Jack. "So what are we supposed to do? We can't fight Bridge, cause he's still Bridge but he is just brainwashed so he doesn't know what he's doing or that he's Bridge. And if we don't fight, how are we suppose to defend ourselves? This is stupid. It's like no matter what we do we are still screwed..."

"We can't hurt Bridge, but we can hurt them," replied Z, talking about the Krybots and the Blue Head. "Then when they're out, we'd just figure out a way to help Bridge…"

"Blah, blah, blah, blah," mimicked Bridge, he made his hand like a chatterbox. "Are you guys going to stand around and talk all day? Cause I don't want to. And they don't want to either. Go get them," he said, ordering the Krybots and the Blue Head. "Time to play."

"Uh oh…. We lost to them once. Who says we won't loose to them again?" said Syd, a few days in the neighborhood and already neck deep in trouble. What else would go wrong?

"Cause this time I'm awake?" suggested Z, her eyes glowed. A duplicate appeared beside her.

"Sam I think you should-" Before Sky could finish ordering Sam to leave the place, he was interrupted by an attacking Krybot.

"No! I can take care of myself," replied Sam, hotly. He teleported a garbage bin and made it land on top of a Krybot.

"Guys, just use your powers," instructed Jack, receiving eye rolls in return for his obvious instructions. He phased through the ground, causing the two Krybots that were attacking from the sides to crash head first into each other. A classic move he saw he most action movies. As he phased out of the ground, he was met with the Blue Head. "Bring it on," he said, through gritted teeth.

Sky was getting a few good hits too. Letting out a karate yell, he roundhoused a Krybot then flipped back to create a force field, blasting a few Krybots away. Then he spun around and kicked the robot that was trying to sneak up behind him.

Things were disappearing and re-appearing on top of the offending robot's heads at Sam's end. His knowledge of martial arts was not as wide as the others but he still had a few tricks up his sleeves. Imitating Jack, he waited for two robots to attack him from both sides. Then he teleported himself away, and the two robots smashed into each other.

"Fist of Iron!" cried Syd. With her newly iron-ized fist, she was armed and ready to take on the Krybots. She cart wheeled away and punched a few of the Krybots. They buzzed and fell to the ground, holes in their 'chests' and wires peeking out.

However things weren't going as smoothly for Z as it were for the others. She was against Bridge. "Bridge, stop, please," said Z, desperate for her friend to come to his senses and help them against the robots and not trying to destroy them. "C'mon, it's me! Z!" But it was futile, she couldn't override the mind wipe. "Guys! Any ideas?" she cried, as she ducked a jab that Bridge gave her. She was answered with negative replies.

"Wait! I know!" said Sky, suddenly as he destroyed another Krybot with his force field. "Let him read your memories. Get his glove off and-"

"And let him read my memories! God, Sky I love you!" replied Z. "Plan for getting it off?" She flipped away as Bridge tried to land a blow on her. She couldn't bring herself to attack him. Though evil, he was still her friend, her brother.

Then he stopped and the robots stopped fighting and fell to the ground, except for the Blue Head. "Mora wants to be fair. And she wants to have a nicer show to watch. She says she's going to give you five minutes to come up with a plan to 'save yourselves'," said Bridge.

"Really?" asked Sam, wary of Mora's loop holes.

"No. Not really." Three dozen Krybots appeared, all fully functioning and not spoilt. "She's lying." A group of ten Krybots appeared. "Just give up, you'll never win," said Bridge. Another group of Krybots appeared. There were fifty-six Krybots already gathered. "Good luck."

xxx

OK, done with this chapter. Yay it crossed my word limit :D

Blackie Frogz

p.s.: I'm getting a little stuck on the next chapter. Just a question, what do you think Jack and Sky are afraid of?


	5. Memories and Fears

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Disclaimer: I don't own anything familiar.

xxx

Vanessa Taylor. A special girl- I mean- teenager. She was 16. A brunette. Her hair was shoulder length, long enough to be tied into a pony tail. She was gifted in the areas of music, but she better in playing the piano than other instruments. She didn't wear braces and was of an average height. Not too short, not too tall. She could sing quite well, probably because of her expertise in music related subjects or criteria. But those weren't the reasons why she was special. The reason was quite a simple one. She didn't think that Bridge, Z, Sky, Sam or Jack were freaks. In fact, she didn't think that anyone who had genetic powers or who were different were freaks. That was why she was special. Granted she did think Bridge was weird sometimes, but then again anyone who knew him would tell you that he was weird. Vanessa didn't care about what others thought of Bridge and the others. To her they were just normal people with cool powers that no one else in the school or probably world had. The other kids at school were simply biased against people who were different from them, and they didn't take time to get to know the others better. Plus, the fact that she had a little crush on Bridge was to be taken into consideration too.

"It's going to be Bridge's birthday in a few days. Eighteen. I wonder if the others are planning something special for him," wondered Vanessa out loud. She decided to visit her friends. Maybe they wanted to go catch a movie or something. It was such a perfect day. Throwing a few items into her back pack, she started towards her friends' house. It was a fifteen to twenty minutes walk to their house.

xxx

"We need a diversion. Then one of us could get his glove off," said Jack. He watched as the group of Krybots grew bigger and bigger in number. "Z, you're the one he's the closest with-"

"I'll give him the jolt," said Z, knowing what Jack was about to say. "Sam can port his glove off, right?" She turned to her brother, he nodded.

"The rest of us fight the robots," continued Jack.

"Diversion. Got it." Syd grabbed the diamond part she had placed in her belt of materials. "I summon this stone!" It glowed the usual shade of pink before turning into the semi-precious stone. Grinning devilishly she directed the sun's shine towards the robots and Bridge, blinding them for a few moments.

Everything happened really quickly after that. As they were temporarily blinded, Z replicated beside Bridge. Sam teleported the glove off of one of Bridge's hands. "Here goes nothing..." whispered Z. She grabbed Bridge's bare hand.

The light blinding Mora's minions vanished instantly after Syd saw that Z had made contact with Bridge. He stood there, memories that seemed foreign yet familiar flooded his mind.

FLASH

Z bent over a piece of paper, colouring and writing furiously. No one had any idea what she was doing. Even the boys had no idea. Then. "Done!" she said, smiling triumphantly. Clutched in one of her hand was a crayon and a pencil, crayon smears were all over her bright, new but now dirty, yellow dress, in her other hand was a piece of paper which looked like a rainbow hit it.

Before any of the boys could see what she had accomplished, the paper was rudely snatched out of her hand. "Hey! Give that back!" demanded the eight year old angrily. She whirled around, facing the 'thief'.

It was Gary. The boy who enjoyed tormenting her and the boys. He started reading the stuff written on the paper out loud. "Oh! It's a family tree! Hmm... Mummy, Daddy... Little brother, Sam... Oh and what's this? You have more than one brother?" He gave a mocking gasp, waving the family tree about, as if an awful scandal.

"Give it back!" cried Z, afraid that Gary might destroy her precious art work. Gary smiled, pausing his waving display of Z's family tree. He jumped onto one of the tables, holding it high out of the girl's reach. She narrowed her eyes. "Or else..." she threatened.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh... I'm soo scared," he said, in a baby-ish way, mocking her. "I'm so scared of a kid- a girl who is two years younger than me. Ahh! Save me from her wrath!" Then he went back to the paper. He scanned it, trying to remember what he was teasing Z about in the first place. "Oh yeah... I didn't know that Jack and Sky and Bridge were your brothers. Since when? Or is it because all of them are freaks like you? So you guys are a big freaky family."

"Give that back to Z!" demanded Bridge, hurtling out of no where, knocking Gary off the table and onto the ground. He grabbed the now quite tattered family tree out of Gary's hand as he picked himself up from clashing into the bully.

Growling, Gary stood up, dusting off any dirt that was on his shirt that he could have got when he fell onto the ground. "You are going to pay for that..." he growled, towering high over the two eight years old. "And you are going to regret about what you just did."

"Oh yeah?" dared Bridge, more confident than he really was. Behind him was a furious but afraid Z. "What are you going to-" Before he could finish his sentence, or rather question, he was lifted up in the air, by the collar of his shirt, by the livid Gary. "Hey! Ow! My shirt doesn't go that way!"

Her fears immediately vanquished, Z rushed forwards, trying to push the bully down and to save Bridge. The three of them soon broke out into a fight. The commotion attracted a crowd, a few joined in, wanting to beat up one of the 'freaks'. "Don't touch Bridge!" she shouted at the bully, afraid of a psychic reaction Bridge might receive. She kicked at the bully's shins, trying to make him release Bridge.

The sound, unfortunately for the bullies, also attracted Jack and Sky, who were at the other end of the play ground. And everyone knew not to mess with any of their 'siblings' or suffer the wrath of the angry older 'brothers'.

"Leme go! Leme go!" cried Z, struggling against the grip of another kid who decided to join in the fight. Her 'captor' had both her hands held back, as if in a hand cuff. Though she was strong for an eight year old, he was much, much stronger. Looking around, she spotted Bridge, thankfully not hanging by the collar of his shirt but, in the same predicament as her. Then there was a short flash of blue and suddenly she was free. "Thanks Sky!" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack phase out of the ground, scaring the heck out of the boy who was holding Bridge. The people crowding around suddenly dispersed quickly, not because of the arrival of Jack and Sky. The teacher was here.

FLASH

"And as your nearly kind of brother, I reserve the right to break the arms of your 'boy friend' if he ever hurts you," vowed Jack, sounding both joking but serious. Then he said to Sky in a stage whisper, "You can have his legs."

"Okay. And I reserve the right to break his legs," continued Sky, trying not to laugh at the expression of disbelief on Z's face.

"Guys! You are not allowed to harm him at all!" said Z exparatedly. "And don't worry, I can take care of myself."

"And as your younger brother-" quipped Sam, following Jack and Sky's example.

"Not you too..." sighed Z, waiting for her younger brother to continue his vow of harming her date if he ever hurt her. Why didn't they get the fact that she could take care of herself? Sky, Jack and Sam grinned.

"I reserve the right to..." he broke off, not knowing what to say. Sky bent over and whispered something in Sam's ear. "I reserve the right to teleport him to somewhere not very fun or nice if he ever hurts you. Or the Sahara Desert... Or... yep..."

"What about you Bridge? Anything you want to add?" asked Z, shaking her head.

"I won't give him any of my buttery toast if I make any," said Bridge. Then he added, seriously, "And I'll beat him up if he ever dares to hurt you."

xxx

"What's happening?" asked Syd, in mid battle. The two, Bridge and Z, had been frozen in place for a few minutes so far. Both of them had a glazed far away look in their eyes. "Why aren't they moving?" She let out a karate yell as she punched one of the Krybots.

"I don't know... We never tried doing that before." Jack threw a worried look at Z and Bridge. It was true that they had not moved an inch since Z had grabbed Bridge's hand. "I just hope that they are both alright and that it would break the mind wipe."

xxx

Were these his memories? But he didn't remember being in any of them at all. His sub conscious told him that this was the real him. That he was Bridge Carson, Z, Sam, Sky and Jack's brother. But his conscious told him that he was Bridge. Evil warrior of Mora. He didn't know which was real or which was fake. The mind wipe was too strong. He was Bridge. He had been given orders. He was to destroy them. Or capture them. These images were all created to fool him from his task. All he had to do was to take his hand away.

But that seemed impossible to do. He couldn't seem to take his hand away to break the connection between him and that girl. As if one part of him refused to let him do that, to let him loose the only chance of breaking the spell. All he could was watch memories that didn't seem to be his but seemed to be his at the same time.

xxx

"Cool! Z's like us! Z's like us! Mummy! Mummy!" exclaimed the five year old Bridge excitedly. He ran into the house and emerged a few seconds later with his mother's fair hand in his gloved one. "Mummy! Z's like me! And us!" He started talking at full speed. Mrs Carson smiled gently, not knowing exactly what her son was talking about but knew that it had to be of a big importance to him. "Can you believe it Mummy?"

In the back yard of the Carson residence was seven year old Sky and seven year old Jack and five year old Z... And another two five year old Zs. "Mummy! Look, Z has powers like us! Z can be more than one Z," cried Bridge, pointing to the three Zs. "We were playing catch and Z fell and she became three Zs. And it was so cool! It was like splat then she became three! And her eyes became a buttery yellow colour!"

"Are you sure you are ok?" asked Sky, concerned, ignoring Bridge.

"Yes! I told you I'm okay!" replied Z, still in shock. She had powers too! Like Jack and Sky and Bridge. She wasn't different from the rest any more.

"Are you-" Sky was cut off.

"Sky, don't worry... Z told you already a gazillion times that she is fine," interrupted Jack, bored of hearing Sky ask Z if she was feeling okay. He spotted Bridge with his mother. "Look, we'll just ask Mrs Carson to help us." Then all of a sudden, the two duplicated Zs disappeared as sudden as they appeared. "And the other Zs just disappeared. So she's okay now isn't she?" To confirm his statement, Z nodded.

"This is so cool..." breathed Z, smiling.

FLASH

"Sam do that again," said Z, surprised. She was 13 and her brother, Sam, had just made- show displays of powers like her. "Did you just make that thing disappear then appear?"

"Yep. I think I just did..." replied the equally amazed Sam.

FLASH

"Make a wish," said Z.

"Why?" asked Sky. "It never comes true."

"Why? What did you wish for? A giant marshmallow headed alien that eats goats and fishes suddenly rampaging through town and destroying everything in sight?"

"Maybe..."

"Uh huh..."

FLASH

"You like him don't you?" asked Z, accusingly. She had caught Vanessa staring at Bridge. Again. For the 5th time since the start of the day. "Just tell him..." And truth be told Z rather Vanessa start going out with Bridge then any other girl. Or no one. It was rare that someone would actually talk to them. It was even rarer for that someone to fall for Bridge. But then again, what's not to like about Bridge? He was funny, sweet.

"No I don't," replied Vanessa, mentally kicking herself for letting Z catch her again.

"Riiight..."

"Fine I do. I think he's really awesome. And he's sweet. And funny. And just perfect," said Vanessa. "Oh and if you told him this I'd rip your limbs off your body and cut them up into little bite sized pieces and feed them to the alligator they have in the zoo."

Z grimaced. "Oh ew. Aren't you gory."

xxx

_I am Bridge Carson. _No you are not. _I AM BRIDGE CARSON. _You are not anything. You are working for Mora. You are not the Bridge in these memories they are simply created to fool you. _You're lying. I remember them. I am Bridge Carson. They are my friends. I do not work for Mora. _

xxx

"No! No! No! Stupid girl!" shouted Mora angrily. She had realized what their plan was and unfortunately for her. It was working. Bridge was starting to fight the mind control. "You stupid girl! Why are you going to ruin EVERYTHING?" Then an idea came to her and if it were an anime show a light bulb would be flashing above her head. Her mood changed immediately and she scrambled off her seat in search for her drawing book.

She placed the book on the ground then went off to find the rest of her drawing materials. Crayons, colour pencils, erasers and pencils. Then with all the materials needed, she started work. Just because her Plan A didn't work, didn't mean that it was going to fail completely. She had a Plan B. A plan that even them would not be able to get out off.

xxx

"Bridge. You are ok?" asked Z, warily. She had decided to break the connection between the two. She waved her hand in front of his face. "Are you there?"

_I am Bridge Carson._

"Say something. Anything. Like something stupid you'd normally say," pleaded Z. Had their plan gone hay wire and instead of freeing Bridge from the mind wipe made him forget everything that happened?

The mind wipe broke. He got a head ache as memories after memories started flooding back in. It was like watching a video, then suddenly changing it when you just realized what was happening in the show. As soon as he figured out what happened in that memory, it changed to a whole new one, as if each and every thing wanted his acknowledgement. Then it occurred to him that Z was talking to him. "Huh?" he asked. It was quite weird really. The process from mind wiped to recovering your lost memories. It was incredibly quick, and there wasn't much to it. Just bam! your memories are back and your mind is clear.

"You're ok?"

"Fine, just fine. Oh and about Va-"

"Talk later. Fight now," replied Z, relieved that Bridge was alright. The Krybots had started circling them as well.

xxx

"So you may have defeated the Krybots and maybe even the Blue Head so what?" said Mora. She had finished her drawing. She hugged her book tightly to her chest. "But you can never beat this!" She flipped the drawing book to a certain page and showed it to the group. Confused, they watched as the drawing glew an eerie colour and turned into a real living, breathing monster. "Meet my newest monster!"

"So pleased to see you." The monster was like a mix of an octopus, an eagle and a bear. It had a bear body with tentacles and the head looked like it was of an eagle's. "My name is Phear. Welcome to your night mares," it said, whilst its eyes glowed red.

xxx

"What are you talking about?" was the question Bridge was about to ask when he realized that Phear was no longer here. He looked around and realized that the others weren't with him either. In fact, he wasn't even in the park anymore. It was completely dark. Then the surrounding scene changed.

Fire. Angry flames surrounded him. Near enough for him to feel the heat but not near enough to get burned. He was surrounded with it. Everywhere he looked was fire. It was creeping nearer and nearer. As if wanting to eat him up. The scene was familiar. He was in his house when it was burning down. They licked closer and closer. The fire formed a circle around him.

Bridge hated fire. He was afraid of fire.

xxx

She had a bad feeling about the monster. Phear. It sounded too much like 'Fear'. The whole place went dark for a second. "What's going on?" Then it changed. She was in a room. The walls were of pure white, the 'whitest' walls she had ever seen. In fact if she didn't know that she was in a room, she would have thought that it was just the floor that stretched long into the horizon. "Where am I?" She didn't like this place.

Z shivered. The white walls seemed to be closing in on her. But that couldn't be possible right? The room seemed to get smaller and smaller. She closed her eyes, hoping that she when she opened them she was back in the park with the others. No, she was stuck here alone. The walls seemed to get nearer and nearer, wanting to enclose her. It seemed harder to breathe. Like the air was running out.

One thing to know about Z. She was claustrophobic.

xxx

It was pitch black. He wasn't in the park anymore. "Z? Sky? Anyone?" called out Sam, uncertainly. His voice seemed to echo around, mocking him. It seemed to grow louder and louder with each echo, as if telling him that he was the only one around. No one is here. No one is here. "Someone? Anyone?" He couldn't even see in front of him, not even his hand which he put out to feel around, just in case there was anything in front of him. What was going on? And why did it have to be dark?

A roar sounded off somewhere behind him. It was faint. Then it got louder and louder. Another roar came from in front of him, it was higher in pitch. But equally frightening. Noises of animals that he didn't hear before started erupting about everywhere, as if there were many animals and monsters about that wanted very much to eat him up. They were not very loud, faint then getting louder. Not loud enough to mean that they were directly in front of him. Foot steps, and roars coming from all directions. No matter where he turned, there was something there waiting for him to come. He thought he saw something moving in front of him.

It was completely dark. There was no light. At all.

xxx

Syd thought she had gone blind for a second when the whole world went dark. Then, thankfully, it became bright again. It was clear that she was no longer in the park. It was clear that the others were no longer with her. And it was clear to her that she was in water. Surprisingly the chlorine in the water didn't hurt her eyes, as she could keep her eyes open without feeling the stinging sensation one would usually feel when they opened their eyes underwater.

She swam to the surface to take a breath before she ran out of air. But she couldn't. There was a glass pane placed over the pool which prevented her from surfacing. She would run out of air. And die. A few precious air bubbles escaped from her lips.

The worst way to die, according to Syd, was to drown. All alone. Waiting for Death.

xxx

"Here we go again..." muttered Sky, as his surroundings turned dark. First meeting Syd, then getting attacked by robots, then getting kidnapped by some weird girl, then getting worried over Bridge, then meeting up in the morning, then finding out that Bridge was turned evil, then waiting nervously for Z to get Bridge back to normal, then feeling thankful that Bridge was okay, then meeting some weirdo red eyed monster, and now this. What else could go wrong? If you asked him, he'd rather spend the day reading, or doing things that are actually counted as normal.

The place lighted up. The group was no where to be found. "Great. Just great..." There were random people, throngs of random people, surrounding him. There was just him in the middle of the circle. They were laughing. And laughing. He looked down. A red blush crept to his cheeks as he realized that his pants was gone, leaving just him in his shirt and boxers. Bright pink fuchsia boxers. Their laughter started getting higher, more people laughing.

He felt embarrassed. An emotion he hated- maybe even feared- to feel.

xxx

"Oh for the love of God..." Jack resisted the urge of muttering the worst swear word he had ever came across. Everything went dark. Then lit up again. It wasn't exactly very bright. The sky was a dull gloom, cloudy and depressing. He looked around and realized. He was still in the park. But there was no one around.

"Oh crud... Where the heck is everyone else?" he asked himself, running a hand through his hair. He started off towards his house, thinking he would at least run into a few people. No one. There was no one at all. It was as if it were a ghost town. And he was the only one in the whole city. It was both eerily silent and yet there seemed to be wailings coming from everywhere.

Alone in the world with no one else but ghostly wails. Jack shivered. It was freaky.

xxx

I couldn't think of any fear for Jack. Hope it wasn't too long. Please review.

Blackie Frogz


	6. Breaking the Spell

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers, or anything familiar...

xxx

They were about to reach him. To consume him. He could hear his parent's screaming for him to get out. He could hear the small Z crying in the basement. There was chaos. Bridge waved his hand in front of him, desperately trying to ward the flames away.

Something else happened. The green aura like thing appeared. And he realized two things. One he forgot to put his glove back onto his hand and he had just 'read' the 'fire's aura'. Two the fire wasn't real.

The fire was real. But the fire wasn't _real_. It was real to him because it was suppose to be. There was actually nothing there. It was all the monster's doing. He, it whatever, was making them relieve all their worst fears.

But there was nothing to be afraid of. It was all fake.

The fires faded. He had to tell the others not to be afraid. Bridge closed his eyes, trying to tell his friends. He didn't see himself glowing green.

xxx

"Help!" Z cried, pounding on the white walls. "Help!" The air got thicker. It was harder to breathe. She started coughing uncontrollably. "Help..." She sunk slowly to the floor, feeling defeated. Pissed, she kicked against the wall as hard as she could, getting in return a spasm of pain running up her leg. "Help!" she tried once more, hardly able to muster up enough energy to call out.

Fear overwhelmed her. She could hardly keep her eyes open. Was she going to die? What was happening? Z started coughing again, the air was getting thicker. Never in her life had she felt so scared.

_Don't be scared Z. _"Br-Bridge?" Z looked around. She had heard his voice. There was a shining green light at the top corner of the room. _It's fake. Everything isn't real. Believe me. This isn't real._ There was hardly any air left in the room. And she trusted her friend. She closed her eyes. And thought about what Bridge said.

The room changed. She couldn't see the room changing, but she _felt_ it. It was more of a feeling, that the room grew bigger and bigger. Then she realized something. The room wasn't really a room. It was just a bunch of space, coloured white. But she had immediately assumed that it was a room because she was claustrophobic, and she had given into something that wasn't real at all.

"Thanks Bridge," she whispered, glowing a deep shade of yellow.

xxx

"Someone, anyone, please. Anyone there?" Sam stopped, panting. He had been running for ages. There was something chasing him. Something monstrous, dangerous, waiting for him to weaken so that it could eat him up. At the thought of the evil, Sam felt a surge of panic, giving him energy to run again.

It felt like hours, but it could have been merely a few minutes, when Sam tripped over something and fell. He winced, trying to stand. It really hurt when he put pressure on his right ankle. Had he sprained it somehow?

A roar called out behind him, reminding him that something was on his tail. "Oh no. Oh no. Oh no." Its footsteps grew louder, coming nearer and nearer. He kept quiet, hoping it, whatever it was, would simply just past by him and not hear him.

The footsteps stopped a few centimeters away from the quaking boy. Sam held his breath, hardly daring to breathe, tears of fear threatening to fall. He hardly dared to think anything at all, or feel any emotions, for fear of the _thing_ being able to 'hear' his thoughts or sense him nearby because of the feelings he was emitting. Then he saw two balls, they looked like balls, of lights. Green and Yellow. Somehow they reminded him of Bridge and Z.

_Don't worry Sam, everything isn't real. _Was it Bridge? _The monster thing. Phear or something. He- it, whatever, is just feeding on your fear. There's nothing to be afraid of. It's all an illusion. _Sam shook his head, refusing to believe that everything was just fake. It seemed too real, it was too real. He could even feel the thing behind him, sniffing the air to catch the whiff of him.

_Sammy, believe me. Kay? It's not real. Don't be afraid of nothing. _It was Z. He was sure of it. _I won't lie to you. It is all fake. _Was his sister right? _Trust me Sammy. I promise you, everything would be over as soon as you believe that this whole place is fake. Close your eyes and it'll be all over. _

"Kay Z," said Sam. Closing his eyes, he tried to tell himself that the whole night mare wasn't real. He tried not to think about the monster nearby, or the fact that the whole place was shrouded in darkness. It isn't real. It isn't real. It isn't-

Sam sensed the place changing, lighting up and getting brighter. Unknown to him, he started glowing a shade of white.

xxx

Thanks to evolution, humans could hold their breath much longer than a measly minute or two. In fact, they could hold their breaths for over seven minutes, the longest someone ever did without passing out was fifteen minutes! Syd could do ten. But obviously that didn't comfort the blonde. Already a few minutes had passed and she still hadn't found a way out.

She had tried everything, all the metals and materials she had clipped onto her belt. Even the diamond! But nothing worked. The glass pane, or whatever it was made of, was too thick, too strong. She couldn't escape.

Syd tried not to scream in despair. It would cost her a few minutes of her life she did. If weren't so wet, you'd see the tears running down her face. She was frustrated with herself. How could she not be able to escape from this? Besides frustration, she was afraid. Afraid of the situation she was in. Afraid of the fact that it seemed impossible to escape. She was afraid of dying underwater. Where nobody would find her. She pounded on the glass again, hoping against hope that it would actually make a crack. Even her strongest hit didn't work.

Doomed to perish. _This is sooo cool! I never knew I could do this. Wow. I'm flying into people's minds! Whee... _It was Sam's voice. In her head? _Wow. This is just so cool. Hello Syd. _Syd shook her head in disbelief. What the heck was going on? _You're scared of drowning? I thought people in magazines weren't afraid of anything! _Syd could head the surprise in Sam's voice. It kinda made her smile. She wasn't alone after all.

_You still scared? Cause this whole place isn't real Pinky. The place thing is just made by that monster we saw in the park. _That was Z. 'How many peoples' voices would there be in my head?' thought Syd. _So wouldja hurry up and just say that the underwater thing isn't real so that we can get the heck out of here? _

_Cause we can't leave this place without everyone knowing that their fears are just illusions or we'd just be trapped here forever. I think... _And Bridge? It was worth a shot. This isn't real. This isn't real.' The same thing that happened to Sam, Bridge and Z, happened to Syd. The water in the 'pool' drained away. Syd closed her eyes, glowing with pink light.

xxx

Their laugher was continuous. Getting louder and mocking in the passing second. Then came the rotten tomatoes. Some idiot thought it would be funny to fire tomatoes at Sky. It pissed him off greatly, and it made the people laugh more and more. Their laughing changed into jeering and mocking.

He tried summoning up a force field to have a shield against the tomatoes. Instead of the usual blue shimmering force field that appeared was chocolate cake. Heaps and heaps of chocolate and icing and pastry fell onto him. Layer after layer of mud brown goop.

It made everyone laugh harder and harder. They started pointing and snickering at Sky. "Get a load of this fool," someone said. "He's such an idiot," said another. Sky felt like sinking into the ground. He was a fool. He tried to open his mouth to protest, to tell them off. But his voice was missing. He couldn't say a word. Green slime started pouring onto him from no where.

_What the heck is this? He's afraid of embarrassment? _Sky looked around, wiping the green and brown stuff out of his eyes, turning his head to find Syd. He had heard her voice.

_Hi Sky! You're like the second person whose mind I can talk to! Isn't it really really awesome? It's so cool that like I can fly around and whoosh and stuff! _Sam? Bewildered, Sky ignored the crowd's laughter. Did he hear his little brother's voice?

_God, you're still so uptight about laughing at yourself huh? _Something was seriously weird. That was Z's voice. _You do know that everyone makes a fool of themselves some time right? And I thought-_

_You can lecture him later. Right now, we need to get him, then Jack. Then I think we would be able to get out of here. _That was definitely Bridge's voice. _Sky-_

_This place isn't real. And cause I'm getting really really tired of saying the same things over and over again-_

_Z... Sky just like, not think that where ever you are is real. Cause it's not. And cause if you do then you'd just be trapped there forever. _Sky nodded blankly, trying to make sense of what his friends were saying. He was trapped in a night mare, that wasn't real. So technically there was nothing to be-

He didn't need to finish the thought. Everything was fading. The crowd, the chocolate cake goopy substance, the green slime, the everything was fading. He didn't know it but, as everything faded and he was closing his eyes, he was glowing a medium shade of blue.

xxx

Lightning crackled ominously from the gloomy clouds, threatening to strike the next person who irritated it. The thunder boomed and its voice echoed all around the city. After all there wasn't a human being in sight, other than Jack.

He had been walking around for ages, to him it seemed. But there was no one in sight. There was no one to talk to. To communicate with. It was too quiet for the likes of him. He couldn't survive without human interaction.

Where were the others? Sky, Bridge, Z, Syd and Sam? Were they gone forever? Dead? The last thing he had remembered was that there was a monster, Phear, and it didn't really do anything to them. Then suddenly he was here. Where was here anyway? It couldn't be New Tech City.

"You're next..." said one of the wails, threateningly. "We'll get you next..." It was coming from in front of him. Then the thing, the voice, materialized. It was a ghostly figure. Not much of a body, just something shimmering. But it had an eerie, evil, dead aura. "I'm coming for you..." His, its, voice was high pitched, that sent chills down Jack's spine.

He was frozen to the spot. The figure seemed to have the power to render all his muscles useless. He found it even difficult to breathe. It was the figure which was causing everything. The ghostly thing reached for him. "You're dead Jack Landers..."

_What is that? _Sky. _Aw man, Jack. _He was shaking with fear, eyes wide open. The thing moved closer and closer.

_That's so freaky... _Next it was Syd's voice. _Even if isn't real._

_Okay... If I were him I'd start- _Then Sam's.

_Sam not helping! _Z interrupted. _Jack, that's not real. Something the others might have wanted to tell you before. _There was no response. The sight of that thing was creeping Jack out too much.

_Okay, for an illusion, that has to be the freakiest. But hey, it's an illusion, so it isn't there. So actually you're being scared of nothing. Which is kinda stupid, since if you're scared of nothing- then there's nothing to be scared of. _Bridge tried reasoning. It seemed to reach Jack. He seemed less afraid.

_Bridge is totally right. Besides, if Sam was able to escape from his night mare. So can you, since like you're older and all. And supposedly more 'superior'. _Z continued.

_Plus, that thingy thing thing isn't even hard. I mean it's just like shimmery air right? _Sam added.

Jack took in a deep breath, thinking about what his friends said. It made sense. It truly did. But it just seemed too real. And scary.

_Just trust us kay? There is nothing to be afraid of. Cause like that's just a stupid illusion created by that monster with glowy eyes thing. _Bridge pleaded. He closed his eyes, not wanting to look at his surroundings. He zoned in on Bridge's voice. _It isn't real. Nothing in this world is except for us. _Bridge is right. They all are right.

An illusion can't be real because if an illusion is real, then it won't be an illusion. It would just be, well, real. So if the whole world was an illusion, then the whole world wouldn't be real. And if the whole world wasn't real, then why was he in it, since he was real? The wailings and the weird spirit things stopped talking. There was nothing eerie about the place anymore. He shone a bright shade of red.

xxx

Vanessa gasped (You do remember her right?). She had been on her way to Z's house and she had seen the most amazing thing. There along one of the sidewalks, were her friends, and another teen. The teen was a female and had blonde hair, she was wearing pink and had quite long hair. But that wasn't the amazing thing.

The amazing thing was what Jack, Sky, Bridge, Sam and Z and the other girl were doing. They were... Was there a word? Glowing? Jack with red, Bridge with green, Sky with blue, Sam with white, Z with yellow and the other girl with pink. There was a feeling of immense power coming from all of them combined.

And besides them, there were two other figures. A girl, she looked around the same age as Sam, maybe slightly younger. The girl was dressed in gothic looking dress. A black dress, poofy sleeves, netting type sleeves, poofy skirt. Black on red. She had long brown hair that was let down. The girl looked really angry about something.

The other figure was an alien. Not trying to sound speciest or anything but, it was the ugliest alien Vanessa had ever encountered. It looked like a kindergartener had forgotten how some animals had looked like and simply matched a few animals' parts together.

"This day has gone from normal to weird," said the teen to herself, quietly watching from behind a tree.

xxx

_Where are we?_ asked Jack.

_In space? I mean not space space as in the planets kinda space. I think just space._ answered Bridge.

_So how do we get out of here? _questioned Syd.

_We should be able to just teleport out or something. How did we come in? With the monster's help or something. But we kinda overcame his spell so we should be able to get out of here now. _said Bridge.

As if on cue, they felt tingly and suddenly they disappeared.

xxx

"That was really cool," said Sam. They were back in the park. "With the flying and the mind and the- They're still there." He frowned, spotting Mora and Phear.

Jack growled, spotting the two evil beings as well. "Great, this is just great. We escape the night mare place thing and now we have to deal with the two of them again..." He was definitely not in the mood to do any fighting after the ordeal in that place.

"Why? Why? Why do you have to foil ALL my plans?" shouted Mora, if she could, she would have just vaporized them. "Can't you just be defeated and STAY defeated?" she ordered.

"That girl is freaky..." said Vanessa to herself.

Mora smiled. "Hello girly, want to play?" she asked, spotting the teen hiding behind the tree. "Don't be afraid I don't bite."

Knowing that she was already spotted, Vanessa came out from behind the tree. "I don't play with strangers," she said, as sweetly as Mora. "So, no thank you. Now if you would excuse me, I'd be on my way now..." Crossing her fingers, she hoped that the girl would just let her go.

Mora narrowed her eyes. "It wasn't an offer. I want to play with you," she said, through gritted teeth.

"'Nessa! Get the heck out of here," ordered Jack. The monster waved its hands around, muttering under its breath. Translucent lines appeared in the air and seemed to create a trap around Jack and the others, or was it Vanessa, Mora and Phear? The bottom line was- they were separated.

"Okay, what the heck was that?" asked Vanessa, warily. She couldn't take a step backwards, there seemed to be an invisible wall behind her. "And what's going on?" There was panic in her voice as she watched the monster approach her.

Bridge took off his glove, waving his hand in Phear's direction. "Oh no..." His eyes widened in fear as he read the monster's mind. "Vanessa, DUCK!" he shouted, a split second before Phear fired a blast at his friend.

Numb with fear she managed to avoid the attack but was nearly hit by the blast. "Bridge, help! What's going on?" she asked, fearfully.

They tried to get to her. But whenever they passed a certain area, they were stopped by a wall. An invisible wall. Bridge slammed his hand against the wall in frustration. "How are we suppose to help her?" he cried, desperation in his voice as he watched Vanessa avoid another blast. "We can't just watch. _I_ can't just watch."

"I'm working on it..." answered Jack. He couldn't stand just watching the duel. He tried, but again he couldn't seem to phase through the wall. "I'm working on it," he repeated, trying not to sound panicked.

xxx

The blasts were getting harder and harder to avoid. They seemed to be coming at a faster and faster speed, more and more at a time. Silently thanking her fast reflexes, Vanessa tried to calm herself down. Bridge and Jack and the others would find a way to help her. They would.

As she thought the monster was tiring, she let her guard down. The blasts were coming at a slower rate. Then came a fast ball. It hit her. A searing pain ran through her. It wasn't painful enough to kill her, but enough to numb her for a second, wiping out any thoughts she had. With a cry, she fell to the floor.

xxx

I'm so evil... I based Vanessa on my friend/senior... :D

shameless pug Read my other fic! Breaking the Habit /shamless pug

Blackie Frogz


	7. Is it worth it?

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Disclaimer: Owneth Power Rangers I don't.

A.N.: Finally updated after a long long long hiatus.

xxx

"Nessa!" yelled Bridge. "Jack, can't you get out?" Jack shook his head, he couldn't phase out of the place. "What are we going to do?"

"Bridge, stop bugging me, I'm thinking!" replied Jack.

xxx

"Oh god. Oh god. Oh god," whispered Vanessa to herself as she shakily stood up. "Oh god," she repeated once more for good measure.

"Careful girly," Mora said, smiling. Phear launched into another series of attacks.

"Crap."

xxx

Syd touched the barrier, wondering what it was made of. There was no material that was invisible was there? "I think I know how we could get out. Or get in," she said slowly. She pressed her hand against the wall, willing her hand to change into the material. "Maybe the only way to get out is to use the same type of thing to smash the wall," she murmured to herself, unaware that the others were watching her. The same pink light enveloped her outstretched hand. It faded, leaving...

Nothing. Her hand had disappeared. "Kinda expected that..." Syd said, still not noticing her being watched. As if to check if her hand was really still there, she clapped her hands together. But she totally missed the other hand. Or, that hand wasn't even there. "Oh kay... If that isn't there... Great..." she groaned, finally turning around to address her 'audience'. "Don't you guys get it? It's another one of his-" She threw a look at the monster, making a face. "-illusions. There's nothing there."

Her left hand re-appeared, as if telling her that her 'theory' was right. To prove her point, Syd stretched her hand, knowing the 'wall' wasn't there. And she was right. Instead of banging into the invisible barrier, her arm simply went through. "Another one of his idiotic mind games," she said. The others beamed, stretching out their arm to see if Syd's theory was correct, keeping in their minds that the wall was not there.

Bridge took a deep breath, more out of habit then actually needing to, and reached out. _Nothing there, nothing there._

xxx

The blows were getting faster and faster, nearer and nearer. Apparently the monster was frustrated that the others had figured out the way to get out of his trap and now was venting his anger on her. The others sure were taking their time to get out of the box.

"Don't you know girly," said Phear, as if reading her thoughts. "That although they have figured out how to escape, that the shield holds up still? And that they still cannot escape. Because of the extra protection. There is at least a minute or two where the wall is not there anymore but they still cannot go out."

"What? I have no idea what you have just said..." Confusion evident on her face, she hesitated. A bad move. This time two blasts managed to hit her, one catching her on her left leg, the other her right arm. The force of the impact forced her flying through the air, slamming onto the ground with a sickeningly loud crack. "Shit," swore the teen, realizing what had just happened.

Her ankle oddly wasn't pain for a few seconds, before the hurt started to come, along with it the damage from the attacks. She lay down on the ground, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to relieve the pain.

It wasn't working.

xxx

"Why can't we still get out?" demanded Bridge furiously. "The barrier is gone but there seems to be something still blocking!"

"Syd?"

"I don't know. I don't know," replied the blonde.

xxx

"Destroy her! Destroy her! Destroy her!" squealed Mora in excitement, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. Someone was going to die, someone was going to die, someone was going to die! "And they'll watch it!" she continued, in a sing song voice. "They'll watch their friend getting killed!" Mora sang, happily, dancing about.

"Yes _Mistress_," replied Phear, scornfully pronouncing the word 'Mistress'.

Mora narrowed her eyes, her hand raised, a purple light glowing above it. "Do it or you're vaporized!" she threatened, her voice shrill and un-child like.

Rolling his eyes, the monster re-directed it's attention to the teen lying on the ground. "Do this, do that," he mimicked, his voice uncannily like the young villainess. "I'm Mora and I can order anyone around..."

xxx

The pain was unbearable, besides the pain on her arm and her leg, and the pain of her ankle, that was most probably twisted, she was feeling a sense of desperation and despair so deep that she had never felt before.

Yet she managed to muster enough energy, enough willpower, to force herself up, facing the monster again. Her determination going strong, she wasn't going to give up, she wasn't going to be found on her knees at death's door. No if she was going to go, she wasn't going to be taken away without a fight.

"You still up girly? You're going to die soon you know?" taunted Phear, eager to finish off the teen, by doing the job he would manage to get Mora off his back.

"You wish," replied Vanessa, although knowing that the monster was probably right. She took a deep breath, hoping her ankle wouldn't give out on her. The monster smiled, an evil, menacing one.

Again the monster launched into a series of attacks, each faster and fiercer than the one before. This time luck wasn't on her side and it was hardly a few seconds that Vanessa was struck by the attacks. Once, twice, three times, four, five.

There was an explosion. The hugest attack of it all. She may have bore the brunt of the attack, but it was enough to make her fly up into the air, flipping several times, landing heavily on the ground, knocking all the breath out of her. This time is was final. She was doomed.

xxx

"NO! VANESSA!" Bridge rubbed his eyes, trying not to show the others that he was going to cry. "Jack... Do something. He's going to dest- He's going to d-" he said, his voice quaking with emotion, sounding small and forlorn, much younger than he really was. He couldn't watch.

"What do we do?" whispered Sam, shaking with fear. "What do we do?" he repeated, his face paler than before.

"Don't worry Sam. Don't worry Bridge," consoled Z, reaching out to give the psychic a hug, and her brother one as well. In truth, she was afraid. She was scared that they might loose. That Vanessa would be... She couldn't even say it.

"This is ridiculous!" shouted Sky, slamming his fist into the wall, which wasn't really there. Anger coursing through his veins. He could not just stand around and watch his friend get injured. He could not just stand around and watch her weaken slowly by slowly.

"I don't get it. I don't get it," said Syd, softly. She had been repeating the few words over and over again for the past few minutes. Why couldn't they get out of the box? The wall wasn't there anymore... There was nothing blocking them and yet there was something blocking them. "I don't get it. I don't get it."

"Syd, would you stop saying that?" asked Jack, annoyed, running his hand through his hair. He was annoyed at her, he was annoyed at the monster, he was annoyed at Vanessa for being so weak, he was annoyed at Bridge's devastation, he was annoyed at Sky's frustration and most of all. He was annoyed with himself, for not being able to help her.

xxx

There were a few other blasts directed at the girl before Phear was finally satisfied, retreating back to his 'Mistress' Mora.

xxx

Her face was deathly pale, she lay still on the floor, her eyes closed a sad, peaceful like expression upon her face. It tore Bridge's heart wide open to see her the way she was right now. She couldn't be gone, she couldn't be dead, she couldn't be. The shield finally broke whether it wore off or whether they had pushed and struggled hard enough against it- they wouldn't know. "Nessa!" cried the psychic, tearfully, desperately. He ran towards Vanessa, his Vanessa, his angel.

xxx

"You did it! You did it! Brilliant!" cried Mora, clapping her hands together. She danced around the monster, Phear, joyfully. "You killed the idiot!"

xxx

He cradled her in his arms, she was light. Too light. Her outlines seemed to be fading, as if she was dissolving, disappearing. "Bridge?" she asked, softly, breaking out into a series of coughs as soon as she did. "Goodbye," she whispered.

"No, no, no. You can't go Nessa. You can't! I..." he trailed off. She was almost transparent. What was going on? "Nessa, Iloveyou," he said in one breath, tears forming in his eyes. "You can't leave us, me. You can't leave me."

A ghost of a smile tugged at Vanessa's lips. "Z told you, didn't she?" she asked. "I never did dare to tell you." Her eyes had a far away look in them, tears collecting there as well. They changed to a determined one. "That's why I must do this. To help." She paused, a teardrop made its way down her pale cheeks. "Cause I love you too." Those were the magic words, and she suddenly dissolved into a series of gold sparkles that seemed to float about where she was before making its way towards Mora and Phear.

"NESSA!" cried Bridge, standing up and turning around, searching for the sparkle. "NESSA!" he shouted again, knowing she was gone. The others watched silently, tears streaming down some of their cheeks. Dignity forgotten, tears started falling quick and fast down Bridge's face.

She was gone from them, she was gone from him. But he had finally told her that he loved her. It wasn't fair that after he confessed his love to her, she was forced, dragged away from her. "Nessa, I love you," he whispered. At least he told her, now she knew. At least she knew he loved her. Wasn't that that mattered?

The light charged at the two villains. Mora screamed, as did Phear. It seemed to make Mora fade as if a ghost, it made Phear disappear completely.

Bridge then understood what Vanessa was doing. Somehow, he wasn't sure how, she had managed to convert herself into energy. Pure energy. And the energy was wiping out the Troobian forces, but what she had wasn't enough. The energy needed a boost. Another source of power. The answer was simple: Them. "Guys, Vanessa. She's energy. We need to help her," said Bridge, surprised that he was still able to talk.

They nodded, understanding what he meant. Forming a little circle, they held each other's hands. "Let's do this," whispered Jack. Some shut their eyes, some didn't. A moment of silence passed, when the group found themselves glowing the colours they had been before. Jack with his shade of red- determination, Sky with his shade of blue- reliable, Bridge with his shade of green- friendship, Z with her shade of yellow- sincerity, Syd with her shade of pink- love, Sam with his shade of white- purity.

The colours sort of drifted out of them, shooting up in the sky, mixing with each other. The mixture of colours, a kaleidoscope, zoomed towards Mora, she disappeared, the robots around her disappeared. The golden light joined with them. The colours shot up into the sky, there was Grumm with his space ship up there. Somehow they knew when the energy, the colours, had done their job.

"We did it," whispered Jack, hardly daring to break the silence. "The alien, the girl, the monster. They're gone. We've won." He could hardly believe that they had gotten rid of an alien, an all conquering one, so easily.

"Yeah. But was it worth it?" questioned Bridge, staring at the skies. "We lost our powers, we lost Vanessa." He shook of his glove, waving his hand in the direction of Jack. Nothing happened. No aura appeared. The others tried, Bridge was right, their powers were gone.

They had lost their powers, what made them unique, different from the world. They had lost their friend, one who wasn't prejudiced against them.

Was it worth it?

-

The End (or is it?)

A.N.: Yes this is the last chapter! Thank you for all the review you guys have been sending!

Blackie Frogz


End file.
